Anton Laššák (1919) - Biography

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Life is a dog that doesn´t bark, but bite

Anton Laššák was born on May 2, 1919 in Orava village of Zákamenné in former Czechoslovakia. Yet as a young boy he was distinguished by his intellect, what was the reason why his parents sent him to study. However, after the first holiday he never returned to school anymore because of his father´s accident and changed family situation. He was apprenticed to tailor, but despite of the gained apprenticeship certificate, there was lack of job opportunities for him, and thus he left to work in Germany. He came back to Slovakia after Poland was attacked by Germany in 1939. He shortly worked as a tailor, until he received a call up to join the 2nd Artillery Regiment in Ružomberok. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in summer of 1941, he was sent to the eastern front. During the two-year service at the front he worked as a mediator and a nurse. Due to illnesses including malaria and hepatitis he was sent back to Slovakia for a recovery leave and he never returned to the eastern front. He actively joined the combat during the Slovak National Uprising, when he substituted for the unit´s commander. In the last months of the war he was gradually dispatched to different places of Slovakia, where he took care of protecting the citizens from plundering soldiers. He got married in 1947 and together with his wife Marta they raised ten children. As time moved on Anton got back to his profession, he started up a business and became a renowned tailor. After he refused to join the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, he was deprived of his business and in order to maintain the family he had to travel to work to various distant parts of the republic. He settled in Zákamenné yet after being employed in clothing factory Makyta in Námestovo, where he worked for long twenty-one years. He retired to pension when being sixty-one years old, although, during the following ten years he helped out at different temporary jobs. Currently (2015) Anton lives with his family in the village of Zákamenné, where he always used to be an active citizen. Moreover, in his age of ninety-six he has been its eldest inhabitant.